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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27519004">Finding The Devils in Disguise</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cromm768/pseuds/Cromm768'>Cromm768</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Persona 4, Persona 5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Flustered, Gen, Handholding, Multi, Naoto's harem</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-08 05:07:56</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,668</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27519004</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cromm768/pseuds/Cromm768</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Naoto moves to Shibuya and transfers to Shujin Academy to investigate the Phantom Thieves.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Shirogane Naoto/Ichiko Ohya, Shirogane Naoto/Mifune Chihaya</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. In The Balance of Fate</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>A WIP<br/>Assuming the story of P4 is concluded and begins in July post-Kaneshiro's palace.<br/>Spoilers for P4 and P5.<br/>I'll be taking certain liberties here and there so everything is not strickly based on the game<br/>Love to hear what people think and thank you for reading!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Naoto walked towards downtown Shinjuku, allowing herself to get lost in its maze of alleyways and interconnecting streets, not once looking at her phone or even asking another person for directions. All that time spent in Inaba made her forget buildings could block out the sun. And the denizens of this city, the millions of people walking these streets every single day, paid no mind to it. They kept their heads down, eyes glued to the pavement, watching out for puddles.</p><p>She made her way into the heart of the city, denoted by the increasing amount of adult sex shops and pornography book stores, but stopped at a vending machine to buy some coffee. The air was humid for July standards and it wouldn’t be long, say another kilometer or so, before her sweat started to soak through her shirt. She sighed and leaned against the guardrail, observing people as they passed by. It was her thing, observing, seeing what kinds of people lived in this world, their struggles and scars. Each had a story, each had something weighing them down. But if she were to ask, they likely wouldn’t tell her what or why.</p><p>She smirked as she took another sip. It wouldn’t be fun or exciting if they all just straight up told her, would it? Yu probably shared the same sentiment. She opened the messaging app on her phone and hovered over Yu’s name. It’d only been a few days since they'd texted, but his words of encouragement, a hundred characters in length, meant the world to her.</p><p>“Excuse me, ma’am,” a woman said with a gentle voice. Naoto turned. She had long blond hair and dawned a dark blue headband to match the shirt she wore under a light pink dress. She looked out of place, sitting behind a small table with cards on it in front of an undisclosed building. Likely another unfortunate soul in this red-light district who enticed travelers with her looks to sell fortunes. However, the longer Naoto stared at her, gazing into her dark purple eyes, the more sense of familiarity she felt. Naoto swore she’d never seen this woman in her life, but she’d seen people like her before, the same kind of people who lived in Inaba. But another thing concerned her; how did she know she was a woman?</p><p>“Yes, is there something you require?” Naoto said, moving closer.</p><p>“You’re... Naoto... Naoto Shirogane! Right? Please tell me I’m right.”</p><p>Naoto crossed her arms. The woman’s manners, the way she sat there squirming to herself, this was not the same person she talked to over the phone. “Who are you? How do you know my name?”</p><p>“I—uh, sorry.” She stood up and bowed her head. “My name’s Chihaya and I’m a fortune-teller.”</p><p>Naoto gazed at the tarot cards arranged on the table in a 3x3 pattern. “Clearly.” She allowed the tension to heighten with her silence. Dealing with someone who had all the cards, in this case literally, meant letting them go first.</p><p>“I read my fortune this morning like I always do, but when I flipped my card.” She flipped the middle card on the row closest to her, revealing an upright justice arcana. “It turned out like this, and for some reason, your name appeared in my mind... oh I mean, I didn’t pry into your background or anything like that.”</p><p>Strange, Naoto thought, but how did she know my identity without researching? She certainly didn’t look the type to lie, in fact, she looked to be the only genuine person in this entire red-light district. “So,” Naoto sat in the chair across from her, “somehow, you learned my name.” She leaned in close. “But how did you learn my identity?”</p><p>Chihaya tensed up, her eyes darted to avoid hers. “That’s... it was a feeling.”</p><p>“A feeling?”</p><p>“No, not just a feeling, it was stronger than that. It was more like....” She ran her hands through her hair and took a deep breath. “Please don’t think I’m some crazy loon, alright? It was like, I saw you standing there and I felt some sorta intense aura from you. It was radiating, and reaching out to me like there was no way in hell you weren’t Naoto Shirogane.”</p><p>“And ma’am? You knew I was a woman as well?”</p><p>The fortune-teller nodded and Naoto brought her hand to her chin. There were too many variables for this to be a coincidence. Reason must exist even within the arcana. “As a fortune teller, you must know more about this than I do.”</p><p>Chihaya shook her head. “This is strange, really strange, believe me. But it can mean only one thing: I have to read your fortune.”</p><p>“Agreed.” But when Naoto glanced over to the prices listed on the table, she cringed. “Perhaps not.” She tried getting up from her seat but Chihaya reached out and grabbed her hand, stopping her in her tracks. She had a soft touch, making Naoto’s heart almost skip a beat. And as she gazed back down at the fortune teller, she saw a newfound conviction in her eyes.</p><p>“Please, it’s on the house. And it won’t take up much of your time, I promise.”</p><p>Naoto sighed and plopped back down in the chair which incited a reaction of happiness from Chihaya.</p><p>“Okay, Naoto,” Chihaya said with a small blush as she fiddled with her cards. “I only need to ask you one question. Do you believe in fate?”</p><p>Naoto tilted her head to the side, scrunching her eyebrows. “What kind of question is that, and in what way does it relate?”</p><p>“Fate is everything! It’s what binds us to this world. You see all those people.” Chihaya gestured at the endless crowd behind Naoto. They were moving along the street like fish, some going upstream by wandering aimlessly in and out of shops, some riding the current back to their homes and families, and some standing around watching them like she was. “All of them,” Chihaya continued, “all of them are controlled by fate and they don’t even realize it. Most will go their entire lives without knowing, never taking a step back, never finding out why they do the things they do.”</p><p>There was a fire burning in Chihaya’s eyes. This was not a normal fortune-teller by any means, as the aspects of life through the lens of money-driven examiners can be seen as benign. What they said was just a means to justify their fortunes, to fill their wallets. But the passion in Chihaya’s words... there was something about it that wouldn’t leave her mind. “Fate, huh?” She gazed into the fortune-teller’s stern eyes. “Is the result of our unexpected meeting because of fate as well?”</p><p>Chihaya nodded. “Fate called out to me. Both this morning, and when I saw you standing over there.”</p><p>
  <span>Naoto thought about challenging her claim further, however, if her time spent in Inaba taught her anything, it was that the world worked in ways she could never imagine. There were people enslaved by the chains of what Chihaya would say is fate, but there were also special individuals who sought to break those bonds. These people were granted powers of personas and for a short time, Naoto was one such person.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fate is real,” Naoto said, “however, some of us can control it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s impossible, you can’t change what has already been determined.” Chihaya sighed and dropped her gaze to the cards. “Either way, you said yes, and so—” She flipped the middle card, revealing the arcana of justice. “Your fate to learn the truth and bring justice to this world has sealed.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Naoto stared at the card. There was a blindfolded woman holding a sword and balance, representing justice, objectivity, and rationality. Ideals printed in countless textbooks on law, and themes regurgitated endlessly in her classes. Her colleagues regarded these sentiments as naive of how the real world works, but for real hard-working detectives, this was what drove them. Naoto sought this in Inaba and succeeded, but perhaps she was fated to investigate hidden truths for the rest of her life. Maybe that was why the reporter reached out to her seemingly out of nowhere.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She looked up at Chihaya and noted her inquisitive look, it was as if Chihaya was mimicking her. “So it seems.” She pulled out her phone and gasped. “Excuse me. It seems I have lost track of the time” She pushed herself to her feet and bowed her head. “I have an appointment with a client of mine.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh! No worries, the reading was over anywho.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Anywho? Naoto thought. Her accent was breaking through and it confirmed her suspicions: Chihaya was not from here.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You mind me asking where you're heading? I can point you the right way,” she said. Her big smile distracted Naoto. No one in this city had given such a wholesome smile to her until now. After leaving Inaba, after leaving her closest friends behind, she’d forgotten what it was like to receive a warm smile. How it made her face hot and her thoughts scrambled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Naoto?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh—yes.” She cleared her throat and fiddled with the brim of her hat. “Your assistance would be greatly appreciated. It’s a bar called Crossroads. I believe it’s somewhere over—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There!” Chihaya said, pointing to her left. “Just around the corner, they got a big sign, you can’t miss it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Naoto bowed once more. “Thanks.” But just as she was about to turn and walk away, she stopped and opened the contacts list on her phone. “I—uh, I just moved to Shibuya the other day, and I don’t exactly know anyone in this city, so if... if it’s okay with you—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sure! I’d love to be friends. I wasn’t letting you go without getting your number anyway.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Naoto blushed, perhaps interpreting that in a different way. Perhaps it was just because she’d seen so many of those... flirtatious kinds of material floating around in this part of the city.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Naoto nodded and as they exchanged numbers, she couldn’t help but wonder what the fates of Yu and the rest of her friends were. Was saving Inaba fulfilling their destiny, or did life have something more in store for them? But perhaps not even they themselves knew the answers. Like her, they would just have to wait until someone showed their cards.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. A Gut Feeling</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was just as Chihaya said, the sign for the Crossroads bar was impossible to miss. Naoto approached the door, keeping her head down to not to draw anyone’s attention. Not for the sake of her identity being discovered like what happened with Chihaya, but because pretending to be a minor, a female minor at that, seen entering a bar in the red-light district would not be ideal. At least it was still the middle of the day and the scorching sun was still out. Most who bothered succumbing to vice did so at night. That was why the sign posted on the door said, “Opens after 7:00 P.M.”</p><p>She held out her hand, but just as she was about to knock on the door, she heard the familiar voice of a woman shouting from the inside. She sighed. It seemed Ohya was just as loud as she was on the phone, if not louder. She gave a loud knock and within seconds it flung open, revealing a rather large woman wearing a purple yukata.</p><p>“Uh?” She said, towering over Naoto. “This isn’t a place for kids, hun.” Behind her, the shouting so-called reporter was sitting at the far end of the bar, sipping on a glass of what Naoto could only assume was hard liquor.</p><p>“Excuse me, ma’am, I know this establishment isn’t intended for minors nor is it technically open at the moment, but I have a meeting with a Mrs. Ichiko.”</p><p>The reporter peered her head over the Yukata-wearing woman’s side. “A kid? Lala-chan? Is that—” She gasped. “It is!” She plopped her drink onto the bartop and hurried over to Naoto, the camera dangling around her neck bouncing off her chest as she ran.</p><p>The bigger woman, aptly named Lala-chan, scanned in and around the area behind Naoto. Likely not wanting to risk being seen letting a minor inside. She sighed and ushered Naoto in before quickly closing the door behind her.</p><p>Naoto bowed. “Thank you and—” Before she could finish apologizing for the inconvenience, the reporter grabbed her hand and dragged her to one of the tables in the back.</p><p>“Be careful of her, hun. She’s been here since morning doing nothing but drinking and whining.”</p><p>Ohya scoffed at the remark. “What’s there to be careful about, Lala-chan? It’s not like a bite or anything. Plus, she’s too cute for me anyway.”</p><p>Naoto blushed, albeit for a moment, before sitting down across from Ohya and taking a deep breath to gather her bearings. Ohya, whose profile Naoto studied on the train ride here, matched her description of erratic and eccentric to a tee. She was bashful, unafraid to write the stories no one else would, and the exact type that would reach out to a young detective in the countryside.</p><p>“Alright, wait just one second, okay?” Ohya said, still grasping Naoto’s hand but a little gentler now. “Lala-chan! Lala-chan!”</p><p>“The answer is no, I’m not serving you any more drinks until you’re done talking to...” She gazed at Naoto.</p><p>“Naoto Shirogane. I apologize for not introducing myself or letting you know I was coming ahead of time.”</p><p>“Oh, you’re very polite unlike that woman over there. Well, just call me Lala-chan, hon, and if she starts giving you trouble don’t be afraid to call for me, alright?”</p><p>“Thank you, Lala-chan, but I think I’ll be able to handle her.” I hope so, Naoto thought, remembering that time she played the king’s game with her friends. And one little gazed into the reporter’s brown eyes told her she could handle a significant amount of drinks, but she couldn’t tell if that was to her benefit or not.</p><p>“I don’t know why I keep coming here,” Ohya whispered to herself. She placed her glasses on the table, letting her poofy short dark hair loose. “So, how about we pick off right where we left off... which was... um—”</p><p>“Investigating this group, this so-called Phantom Thieves.”</p><p>“Right, Right! Gosh, how could I forget?” As Ohya laughed at herself, Naoto noted her rather odd appearance. She had bright red lipstick, one that would stain the glass of her drinks let alone a man’s mouth, but wore a black tee-shirt and jeans, plain but seductive. Not so much from a distance as she would blend into any crowd no problem, but up close, like how she was now, it was difficult to ignore those entrancing red lips.</p><p>Ohya took a deep breath and sunk into her seat. “A group of individuals who target hidden menaces in our society, and somehow ‘change their hearts’ to the point where they confess their crimes and repent in front of everyone.” She pulled out two photographs from her bag, the two victims so far.</p><p>“I read that, or rather, had my ears open on the train ride here, Ichiko-san, but—”</p><p>“Ohya.”</p><p>“Huh?”</p><p>“Call me Ohya, I’m tired of only hearing my last name.”</p><p>Naoto cleared her throat, “Alright, Ohya-san. What I was saying was, why did you inquire for me in the first place? Surely there are detectives in Tokyo already working on the case, why not just go to them for a story?”</p><p>Ohya laughed. “Oh believe me I tried, but that stuck up brat, Oh! He just makes my blood boil.”</p><p>“Detective Akechi, I presume.”</p><p>“Yep, him along with that lady from the prosecutor's office aren’t saying shit.”</p><p>“Doesn’t Detective Akechi pride himself from his television appearances though?” Naoto never met the man, but she saw him speaking about the Phantom Thieves on the news. He seemed like another hotshot detective, or at least someone who thought of himself as one.</p><p>“He does, he’s on the news every week saying the exact same thing. ‘Oh, we’re getting closer to figuring out their identities, we’ll finally be able to bring them to justice, blah, blah, blah. And you go up to him, thinking he’d at least give some sort of interesting statement, and guess what? He doesn’t say shit.”</p><p>“So what he knows is confidential—”</p><p>“Or he actually knows nothing.”</p><p>Naoto brought her hand to her chin and sighed. “That likely could be the case.” She glanced at the pictures, first Kamoshida, the Olympic medal winner turned teacher, then Madarame, the famous painter. No wonder she suspected that, what connection could exist between these two? Why would they target a teacher and then a painter? There was a chance this was random, like a serial killer’s victims, but what satisfaction would they gain by letting two random people repent for their crimes? Perhaps it was only an illusion and a connection was there.</p><p>“If—” Naoto said, “if there is a connection to Shujin Academy like you said on the phone, then why go so far as to ask me to fake my age and infiltrate? You must already know more than I do.”</p><p>“The only thing I know as a reporter, Naoto, is that I know nothing. The people I meet and talk to have all the answers I need.” She took out another photo, this time of a student, a small male with short hair. “This is one of my contacts, his name is Mishima Yuuki, he’s in your class. He’s been providing me with insight on the Phantom Thieves in exchange for a ‘better representation’ in our newspaper.”</p><p>Naoto grabbed the photo, studying his face. “So you’re telling me he bribed you.”</p><p>“I made a deal, and Mishima was one of the bargaining chips.”</p><p>Naoto glanced back into the reporter’s eyes, noting her sharp gaze. “Meaning someone else is using him to feed you information.”</p><p>Ohya smirked and placed another picture of a male Shujin student on the table. “Ren Amamiya, A friend, not that I know much about him, but a friend regardless. He introduced me to Mishima, a great help of course, and I can proudly say that I know more about this group than anyone else, but... It’s not enough, I must learn the truth, you understand that don’t you, detective?”</p><p>“I do,” Naoto said. “But you’re willing to betray their trust, backstab them for the sake of fulfilling your desires?”</p><p>“It’s the biggest story of the decade, if not the century, detective. And I plan on being the one ready for whenever their time comes. What they’re doing, if they keep going down this path, if they keep quiet forever, then I suspect no one will know the truth in the end. They’ll go down in flames as martyrs, terrorists even, but I want to be the one to fight that narrative.”</p><p>“But you do realize the risks if this Ren finds out, he’ll cut off your contact, or worse, silence you.”</p><p>“Maybe, yeah.” She stared into Ren’s photo. “But you look at the news now, you go outside and listen to the gossip... these people know nothing, and somehow someone is controlling the narrative.”</p><p>“Who?” Naoto leaned in.</p><p>“No clue, no leads, just a gut feeling.”</p><p>Naoto held her tongue, using the moment to collect her thoughts. Her eyes jumped from one photo to the next, trying to draw some sort of clue. If anything the Phantom Thieves, if there really was more than one of them, was a student at Shujin Academy. Why else would they target a teacher for abusing his students? One would have to be a student or a teacher to know about that in the first place. But Madarame? For him, she had no clue what the connection was. “The strange thing regarding these Phantom Thieves is that of their methods,” she said.</p><p>“Exactly, no one knows a damn thing. Even Mishima doesn’t know.” Ohya said. “But here’s the thing, I think Ren is keeping him out of the loop on purpose.”</p><p>“You seem to suspect this Ren a lot, wasn’t he a friend of yours?”</p><p>“Friends deceive each other all the time, it’s to keep people like me and Mishima safe.”</p><p>“Indeed so.” Naoto collected the pictures, placing them in a folder then into her bag.</p><p>“Here,” Ohya placed a wad of cash on the table. “A down payment. Should get you through a couple of weeks. And honestly if you need anything, a place to crash, a friend to talk to, feel free to reach out to me. Tokyo, for all it’s worth, is a rather lonely city.”</p><p>Naoto grabbed the cash. “Thanks. And I’ll be sure to reach out to you the second I find something substantial.” As Naoto stood up, Ohya got up too and moved to stand in front of her.</p><p>“Plus, I’m here every day and so is Lala-chan, I want to make sure that you’ll have at least someone to go to if shit goes down, okay?”</p><p>Naoto smiled, hearing those kind words from someone who reeked of liquor was odd but heartwarming. Ohya, just like the fortune-teller, cared for her for reasons she did not know. And as their eyes met, Naoto’s heart thumped loudly against her chest. For whatever reason, the seductive air surrounding Ohya returned, and she could feel her face getting warmer by the second. She was just being nice, that was all, Naoto thought. And perhaps Ohya was just flirty by nature.</p><p>Ohya inched closer, grasping Naoto’s hands just a little bit tighter, and whispered. “I really do think you’re cute, you know.”</p><p>Naoto moved her hands away and spun to hide her blushing face. “Any—anyways, like I said, I’ll be in touch.” And leaving the reporter behind Naoto quickly made her way out into the night. Tomorrow was her first day at Shujin and she still needed to unpack her bags.</p>
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